Dickens speaks to Marx who is in discussion with Harry Leslie Smith. They reach a compromise.

Yes, the NHS and the Tory.

Sure, the Tory has never liked the NHS, it is too leftie, too socialist, democratic, and yet, it is central to UK political debate; it is locked-in to our psyche.

Crisis, alert, no beds!

Many are unaware of the pain and sometimes indignity facing the patients (as Old Adam waits on that stretcher, in hospital gown, bottom or testicle peeking-out, he needs the toilet, ‘Just go in your pad,’ he is told.)

A dying breed. Knock, knock, It’s the doctor.

What makes a GP special is their knowledge of a patient, their insight over months, years, even decades into a person’s life. The bond that continues after the acute illness has passed, the person recovered, perhaps passed through school, left for college and returned, married then divorced, raised children.

Safety netting – to net or not?

Sure, some readers will think, ‘Honestly, this isn’t nannyworld, people have some responsibility, they should use their common sense.’

This is black-belt medicine (areas of uncertainty in health and social care)

Ever been breathless at three in the morning? Do you have any strategies to sort yourself out, particularly when to begin you have a bad chest?

Anticoagulation and possible head injuries in care home residents

Consequently, significant numbers of very frail and older people are transferred to local Emergency Departments following either trivial head injuries or when a head injury is only suspected but not witnessed.